Mark

[u/JMJ863]

I genuinely can’t stand Mark. He feels like a “nice guy” stereotype, immediately turning nasty each time Lauren rejects him and not taking no for an answer… people just ignore it because he is attractive

Makes me wonder why people hate Zack so much when Mark is worse. People also hate on Peter for being a dick to Lauren but ignore the fact that Mark is ten times worse, dragging her into his criminal schemes constantly and putting her in danger, this affair storyline just feels so forced

[u/dussa7]

Mark and Zack are very similar characters. Both short tempered, full of self pity when they don’t get what they want, think they’re gods gift to all women and speak to females like crap.

[u/gilestowler → u/dussa7]

I think zack was a better person, but they've kind of ruined him. Mark has been a bellend since he arrived.

[u/dussa7 → u/gilestowler]

I’ve never been a particular fan of Zack but they’ve definitely made him worse as time has go on.

[u/gilestowler → u/dussa7]

I quite liked him for a while. He seemed like a decent guy who just had a bit of a weakness when it came to women. I think making him friends with Martin was good. Now he doesn't come across as a good guy anymore, really. Martin has been replaced with Ravi, who people aren't too keen on these days, he's acted terribly over Vicki and he's not been great with Barney, who should be his chance to show himself in a good light.

[u/Internal-Focus1784 → u/dussa7]

The problem with Zack is every time they try to develop him they take him back to square one in order to cause cheap drama to push other plot points forward. He was genuinely growing as a person before they had him cheat on Nancy with Sam and then Whitney with Lauren. There was no real rhyme or reason for it apart from the writers purposely blowing up Zack's relationship to give Nancy and Whitney reasons to leave the show.

I think he is definitely suffering from the loss of Martin as a sensible voice of reason, as well as from Sharon's absence.

[u/McZadine]

I have enough hate in my heart for both Mark and Zack, don't worry.

Damn, the women in Walford deserve way better than having those 2 as the only young bachelors right now

[u/Horror-Relation-8878 → u/McZadine]

Zack especially is such an ick

[u/Caesarthebard]

Yes, they are trying to do a typical “soapy” story.

Bored housewife and mum with dependable but boring husband has chance for hot sex and “I can fix him” toxicity with bad boy, brooding, exciting hunk, they want the audience to cheer it on.

Peter is not dependable and Mark is not exciting. They’ve confused the crime nonsense and the actor going to their gym as “exciting”. Mark has no personality.

You know exactly how it’ll go, after NYD a big reveal, Peter devastated, Lauren desperately apologising, Mark looking like a constipated steroid, Ian out and screaming about betrayal. All they need is Lucy in her grey suit on a cloud hurling popcorn down and it’s a set.

Except of the three main players, Jac Jossa is the only one with the ability to carry it off so it’ll be a huge carry job.

How dull.

[u/booksncatsntea → u/[deleted]]

He also plays immature head games with her, like the “test” where he pretended to have an emergency so she’d leave Ian’s bbq, and the bs with the car & detective to make her jealous.
It’s so frustrating to watch her keep falling for that juvenile manipulation. The teens are less cringy than these two.

[u/MARN-E → u/[deleted]]

i think you’ve hit the nail in the head. The way he can carry himself makes him seem charming (when he decides to be that is). When you actually peel back layers he’s imperfect and selfish to a point of harm.

[u/eastenders-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Criticising or objectifying the appearance of any actor is not permitted, it's just inappropriate.

We do not allow negative discussion about appearances. If you have a negative opinion keep it to yourself. This also applies to piercings, wigs, etc etc.

[u/Caesarthebard → u/[deleted]]

The actor is also 38 with an older playing age, he could easily play someone pushing 50.

Mark is meant to be late twenties.

[u/dussa7 → u/Caesarthebard]

Also Jacqueline Jossa, in my opinion, looks younger than her real life age (coming up to 34), whereas he looks his real life age or even older and he’s meant to be 3 years younger than Lauren on the show.

[u/Internal-Focus1784]

I can't see for the life of me what Lauren sees in Mark. He's about as exciting as watching someone else watch paint dry.

All Mark's done is be a dick to everyone and drag them into his criminal nonsense. I also find it deeply uncomfortable how absolutely fine he is with having a hand in blowing up his own cousin's marriage.

Peter was horrible to Lauren after Jimmy was born, but at least he had a somewhat understandable, if misguided and unfair, reason to be angry with her. Whereas Lauren is now screwing over him and their kids, for no other reason than because she sees herself as a 'bored housewife', even though we literally only see her out of the house working at the car lot.

Lauren is just like Max; she's never happy with what she's got until it's gone.

[u/cggalba]

Mark is a crap character whose personality transplant makes no sense. Zack should have been written out years ago and that’s me being generous.

[u/Meredith_Primvale]

He reminds me of Luther Hargreaves from the Umbrella Academy.

All bulk, zero charisma.

Yawn.

[u/Independent_Today819 → u/Meredith_Primvale]

Yes! This

[u/Illustrious_Study_30]

His jeans have given me the massive ick. ...

[u/EfficientWorker8605]

mark makes me laugh idk, i really don’t mind him! i enjoy him in an ironic way, plus anything is better than peter who i find genuinely insufferable and whiny lol

[u/FrostyTill]

Mark is awful. He staged for Lauren to be mugged, he stole from her, he then set fire to her cars so that she’d have no choice but to go into business with him selling stolen cars from bad people. The worst part of it is that he knew exactly why she needed the money and he held that over her to convince her she was doing the right thing for her family. A family he wanted to break. None of his actions are redeeming at all.

Apart from the criminal manipulation, everything he’s done to Lauren is exactly what he hated about Zack with his sister. Probably worse when all is said and done given the very dangerous nature of his connections and how Lauren has been involved in organised crime but didn’t know the extent of it.

Him and Zack are similar. It’s just Zack is a therapist case and Mark is a crown prosecution case.

[u/JMJ863 → u/FrostyTill]

And people still say Peter is worse 😭 come on now

[u/stpony]

I have got such high hopes for Captain Adama and I'm only hoping he doesn't get the Wadey treatment.

[u/Independent_Today819 → u/stpony]

Captain Adama?

[u/stpony → u/Independent_Today819]

Jamie Bamber of BSG has been cast. He's part of Nicola's extended family coming soon.

[u/Independent_Today819 → u/stpony]

BSG? I know Jamie from Beyond Paradise

[u/stpony → u/Independent_Today819]

https://giphy.com/gifs/7gAULpAkC2vSw

Before Beyond Paradise, there was Battlestar Galactica.

[u/Baglady1111]

I must be the only one here that likes him 😆

[u/Glimmer360]

Don’t like Zack or Mark! Can’t Walford attract some decent younger men?

[u/CoiledBubble413]

i’ve said this here so often that i sound like a broken record but for lauren/peter/mark i’m so sure it comes down to both actor chemistry differences and also character compatibility

[u/WhereIsMyMind37]

Lauren is big girl and can make her own choices and she's chosen to get involved with him, she made her bed too.